Review Summary: As The Haunted rises, as does Feared.
Ola Englund's gradual improvement in his long time project Feared seems inextricably tied to the rise in quality of his other bands and projects. His stint in the oft reviled
Six Feet Under did at least result in their best album since
Haunted, and his joining
The Haunted resulted in a major improvement in his songwriting and that band's fortunes. With Svart, and as a heavily integrated member of The Haunted at this stage, Feared seems to be characterised by a heightened confidence and polish.
Feared's core weakness was always the limited scope in which Englund operated, utilising a pretty chunky and effective base formula of groovy death metal with a lot of thrash influence. That problem hasn't gone away, but the thrash influences seem altogether heightened and the overall sound is both heavier and more aggressive as a result. The seven strings are gone as well, which removes some of the more vapid low end grooves and replaces them with more traditional riffing. Assisting this is generally stronger songwriting, with shorter but more tightly constructed songs than before, and with less of a clear shift in each song from a "thrashy section" to a "groovy" one, instead integrating them both into each other a lot better than before. Another upgrade is the production, which feels fatter and less scratchy, with more bass in the guitar tone making it feel more balanced.
Besides the fairly weak Pantera-aping
Your Black is my White, the album is consistently strong across its main tracks. Besides the filler track
In i dimman and the instrumentals book-ending the album, album delivers both satisfying guitar theatrics and deft, heavy assaults. The strongest 3 of the album have to be
King of the Dead,
Hate Mantra and
Engines of Death, which are the 3 catchiest, thrashiest, and most straightforward overall, the latter being likely the strongest overall due to its excellent groove.
My Next is a decent demonstration of Englund's capacity for expansive guitar leads, and despite a relatively weak ballad-type opening does very well with its second half.
The Mare feels a bit more progressive, with generally a slower pace and more space than the other 3 thrashier tracks mentioned prior and with generally more dynamic songwriting, and does another good job with some effective grooves and good riffs. The biggest success here however is how the album is quite short, with the slower tracks generally not occupying too much space and a lack of dragging despite the fairly simple songwriting format.
By dropping the 7 strings, and by tightening up the songwriting, Feared improves on its base formula, without any significant fluff or wasted space. Whilst it's never going to rise into the upper echelon of death metal with its current, streamlined formula, Svart nonetheless succeeds as a catchy, simple, tightly constructed modern death metal affair.
